Eight sheratzim

{{short description|Animals whose bodies convey impurity in Jewish law}} In Judaism, the '''eight ''sheratzim''''' (Hebrew שמונה שרצים), typically translated as the "'''eight creeping things'''", are animals described in {{Bibleverse|Leviticus|11:29-30|HE}}, which have special laws in regard to ritual impurity and Shabbat.

==Laws== While alive, the eight ''sheratzim'' do not convey impurity. However, when one of them has died and is touched or shifted by a human being, it conveys impurity to that person. If he were a priest (Kohen) of Aaron's lineage who touched the animal's corpse, he is forbidden to eat of the hallowed things until he first immerses his body in a mikveh and has waited until the sun has set.<ref>Leviticus 22:4-7</ref> During the time when the laws of ritual purity were performed by the Jewish nation, earthenware vessels into which one of the eight, dead creeping things had fallen, including within an earthenware oven, become unclean and unfit for sacred foods, and, therefore, would be broken and the food discarded ({{Bibleverse|Leviticus|11:33|HE}}).

In other applications of Jewish law, a person who either catches or inflicts a wound upon one of the eight creeping things on the Sabbath day becomes culpable by that act, but is held unaccountable and exempt if he had inflicted a wound upon any of the other harmful vermin and creeping things.<ref>{{Citation |title=The Mishnah |editor-last=Danby|editor-first=H. |editor-link=Herbert Danby |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=Oxford |year=1977|pages=112–113 |isbn=0-19-815402-X |title-link=Mishnah }}, s.v. [https://archive.org/details/DanbyMishnah/page/112/mode/1up Shabbat 14:1]</ref>

<blockquote>The defilement associated with a 'creeping thing' has naught to do [with other things], except with eight [creeping things]. The creeping things in the Torah and, [particularly], what applies to them after their deaths, refer specifically to the ''ḥoled'', and ''ʿaḫbar'', and ''ṣav'', and ''ʾanaqah'', and ''koaḥ'', and ''leṭaʾah'', and ''ḥomeṭ'', and ''tinšamet'', but as for the remaining detestable things and those things that crawl which have died, even if they were of those things on the ground, such as frogs, and snakes, and scorpions, or of similar things, or of those things found at sea, even that which is called by one of these names, such as ''ʿaḫbar'' of the sea, they remain clean from any suspected defilement.<ref>{{cite book |last=Meiri |first=Menahem |author-link=Menahem Meiri |title=Novellae of Meiri (חדושי המאירי) |publisher=The Institute for Publication of Books and Study of Manuscripts, Torah Educational Center |location=Zichron Yaakov |date=2017 |volume=6 |page=417 (Hullin 126a)|language=he |oclc=745169045 }}</ref></blockquote>

==Identification== {|class="wikitable" ! style="text-align:center; width:65px"|Hebrew Word ! Saadia Gaon (Judeo-Arabic) ! Rashi (Old French) ! Septuagint (Greek) |- | style="background:Navajowhite; text-align:center; width:65px"|'''{{Script/Hebrew|החֹלד}}''' (''ha-ḥoled'') | style="text-align:center;"|'''אלכׄלד''' Mole (''Spalax ehrenbergi'')<ref name=ZoharAmar2016>Zohar Amar, ''Shmona Shratzim'', Mekhon Moshe: Kiryat-Ono 2016, pp. 13, 66 {{ISBN|978-965-90818-9-9}}</ref> | style="text-align:center;"| '''mustele''' Weasel (''Mustela spp.'')<ref name=IsraelGukovitzki1992>''Sefer Targum La'az (Translation of Foreign Words)'', Israel Gukovitzki, London 1992, p. 140. According to Amar, thought to be Mustela subpalmata or Mustela nivalis, species that were once endemic to Israel.</ref> | style="text-align:center;"| '''γαλἡ''' (''gale'') Weasel<ref name=ZoharAmar2016b>Zohar Amar, ''Shmona Shratzim'', Mekhon Moshe: Kiryat-Ono 2016, p. 12 {{ISBN|978-965-90818-9-9}}.</ref><ref>In Greek, the word ''gale'' is a general term including the weasel, ferret, and the stoat.</ref> |- | style="background:Navajowhite; text-align:center; width:65px"|'''{{Script/Hebrew|העכבּר}}''' (''ha-ʿaḫbar'') | style="text-align:center;"|'''אלפאר''' Mouse (''Mus musculus'')<ref name=ZoharAmar2016 /><ref>By saying, "after its kind," it would include rats (Rattus), voles (Microtus), hamsters, gerbils, jerboas, etc.</ref> | style="text-align:center;"| xxx | style="text-align:center;"| '''μυς''' (''mys'') Mouse<ref name=ZoharAmar2016b /> |- | style="background:Navajowhite; text-align:center; width:65px"|'''{{Script/Hebrew|הצב}}''' (''ha-ṣav'') | style="text-align:center;"|'''אלצׄב‎''' Spiny-tailed lizard (''Uromastyx aegyptius'')<ref name=ZoharAmar2016 /> | style="text-align:center;"| '''froit''' Toad (''Bufo'' spp.)<ref name= IsraelGukovitzki1992 /><ref>As for "frogs" and "toads," according to Maimonides (Mishnah commentary, Introduction to ''Seder Taharot''), both reptiles are generically called in Hebrew '''צפרדע''', but in Arabic ''dhafadaʿ'', and neither one of them can convey uncleanness by touching, even after death. See Maimonides, Mishnah ''Taharot'' 5:1, where it is proven that a dead frog is not the same as one of the dead creeping things.</ref> | style="text-align:center;"| '''κροκόδειλος''' (''krokódeilos'') Big lizard<ref name=ZoharAmar2016b /><ref>''Krokódeilos'', not to be mistaken with the animal that is called by this name today, or crocodile. For in ancient Greek, any big lizard was called "krokódeilos."</ref> |- | style="background:Navajowhite; text-align:center; width:65px"|'''{{Script/Hebrew|האנקה}}''' (''ha-anaqah'') | style="text-align:center;"|'''אלורל''' Monitor lizard (''Varanus'' spp.)<ref name=ZoharAmar2016 /> | style="text-align:center;"| '''heriçon''' Hedgehog (''Erinaceus concolor'')<ref name= IsraelGukovitzki1992 /> | style="text-align:center;"| '''μυγάλη''' (''mygáli'') Shrew (''Crocidura'' spp.)<ref name=ZoharAmar2016b /> |- | style="background:Navajowhite; text-align:center; width:65px"|'''{{Script/Hebrew|הכח}}''' (''ha-koaḥ'') | style="text-align:center;"|'''אלחרדׄון''' Agama lizard (''Agama'' spp.)<ref name=ZoharAmar2016 /> | style="text-align:center;"| xxx | style="text-align:center;"| '''χαμαιλέων''' (''chamailéon'') Chameleon<ref name=ZoharAmar2016b /> |- | style="background:Navajowhite; text-align:center; width:65px"|'''{{Script/Hebrew|הלטאה}}''' (''ha-leṭa’ah'') | style="text-align:center;"|'''אלעצׄאיה'''<ref>Or what is also spelt in Arabic: {{lang|ar|العظاية}}.</ref> Fringe-toed lizard (''Acanthodactylus'' spp.) (''Lacerta spp.'')<ref name=ZoharAmar2016 /> | style="text-align:center;"| '''laiserde''' Lizard (''Lacerta'' spp.)<ref name= IsraelGukovitzki1992 /> | style="text-align:center;"| '''καλαβώτης''' (''kalavótis'') Newt<ref name=ZoharAmar2016b /> |- | style="background:Navajowhite; text-align:center; width:65px"|'''{{Script/Hebrew|החמט}}''' (''ha-ḥomeṭ'') | style="text-align:center;"|'''אלחרבא'''<ref>Rabbi Yosef Qafih and Zohar Amar correct the Judeo-Arabic text to read "אלחרבא" (Arabic: {{lang|ar|حرباء}}) = Chameleon lizard. Qafih explains in his commentary on the Responsa and Halachic Decisions of Rabbi Abraham ben David of Posquières, ''responsum'' # 91 (note 2), p. 149, that what the inquirer incorrectly mentioned under the Old French name of ''limace'' (slug), based on Rashi's translation of '''חמט''' in Leviticus 11:30, the original meaning of the word is none other that chameleon lizard.</ref> Chameleon lizard (''Chamaeleo'' spp.)<ref name=ZoharAmar2016 /> | style="text-align:center;"| '''limace''' Slug (''Limax'' spp.)<ref name= IsraelGukovitzki1992 /> | style="text-align:center;"| '''σαύρα''' (''sávra'') Lizard<ref name=ZoharAmar2016b /> |- | style="background:Navajowhite; text-align:center; width:65px"|'''{{Script/Hebrew|התנשמת}}''' (''ha-tinšameṯ'') | style="text-align:center;"|'''אלסמברץ'''<ref>Rabbi Saadia Gaon's reference here is to the lizard that is called in Arabic: {{lang|ar|سام أبرص}} .</ref> Gecko lizard (''Hemidactylus turcicus'')<ref name=ZoharAmar2016 /> | style="text-align:center;"| '''talpe''' Mole (''Talpa'' spp.)<ref name= IsraelGukovitzki1992 /> | style="text-align:center;"| '''ασπάλαξ''' (''aspálax'') Mole<ref name=ZoharAmar2016b /> |}

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Shabbat Category:Jewish ritual purity law Category:Animals in the Bible Category:Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish law